There are two types of hospital discharge records available in Nebraska, emergency department (ER) and inpatient (IP). Hospital discharge data is collected from hospitals, including inpatient and outpatient data. The Nebraska Department of Health and Human Servicesnormally receives data from the Nebraska Hospital Association (NHA) annually, approximately every October. Hospital discharge records contain information on the date of admission, date of discharge, patient’s age, gender, county of residence, and primary and secondary ICD-9-CM diagnosis codes. Data are used to examine important topics of interest in public health and for a variety of activities by governmental, scientific, academic, and commercial institutions.

Type of Data

The data are population-based for ongoing surveillance.

Data Collection Method and Availability

Information on each hospital discharge is reported from acute care hospitals in Nebraska to the Nebraska Association of Hospitals and Health Systems (NAHHS). The information is reported by hospitals by UB-04 inpatient and outpatient data form. The data have been collected annually since 1975.